Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE SNAKE, by THOMAS MOORE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE SNAKE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My love and I, the other day
Last Line: "to let it sting one -- don't you think so?"
Alternate Author Name(s): Little, Thomas
Subject(s): Animals; Snakes; Serpents; Vipers


MY love and I, the other day,
Within a myrtle arbour lay,
When near us, from a rosy bed,
A little Snake put forth its head.

"See," said the maid, with laughing eyes --
"Yonder the fatal emblem lies!
Who could expect such hidden harm
Beneath the rose's velvet charm?"

Never did moral thought occur
In more unlucky hour than this;
For oh! I just was leading her
To talk of love and think of bliss.

I rose to kill the snake, but she
In pity pray'd it might not be.
"No," said the girl -- and many a spark
Flash'd from her eyelid as she said it --
"Under the rose, or in the dark,
One might, perhaps, have cause to dread it;
But when its wicked eyes appear,
And when we know for what they wink so,
One must be very simple, dear,
To let it sting one -- don't you think so?"





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